The Tusket River is a Canadian river located in Nova Scotia's

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo- Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It c ...

Geography

The Tusket River is a significant river system and drainage basin in Yarmouth County, southwest Nova Scotia. It has numerous branches and associated rivers, passes through several lakes, and has these features. Near its mouth, the river becomes a tidal estuary, with the water becoming brackish due to mixing of the river's fresh water with salt brought upstream from the Gulf of Maine by incoming tides. The headwaters of the river lie in the

Tobeatic Wilderness Area The Tobeatic Wilderness Area is the largest protected area in the Canadian Maritimes, located in southwestern Nova Scotia. It contains nearly 120,000 hectares of land and spans parts of five counties, Annapolis, Digby, Queens, Shelburne and ...

, which is part of the larger

Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve The Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve was designated in 2001 under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. The Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve spans over 1.54 million hectares consisting of five counties in Nova Scotia, Canada: Annapolis, D ...

Natural history

Flora

The river is nationally significant for its many coastal plain plant species. Some, like the Plymouth Gentian (''Sabatia kennedyana'') and Pink Coreopsis (''Coreopsis rosea'') occur nowhere else in Canada. These species occur on gently-sloping sand and gravel shorelines lower in the watershed. There is an online guide to assist with identifying all these species. Wilson's Lake has one of the largest populations of Atlantic Coastal Plain plants in Canada, and is the site of the small but highly significant Tusket River Nature Reserve. In 2011 botanists exploring a newly acquired protected area, the Jack and Darlene Stone Conservation Lands, discovered another rare plant species, Maleberry (''Lyonia ligustrina''), the first time this species has been found growing in Canada. Groundseltree (''Baccharis halimifolia'') reaches its northern limit in North America near the Tusket River Estuary. This white-flowering shrub in the aster family ranges southward along the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Gulf Coastal Plain coastal plain to Florida and Texas.

Fish

Sport fishing in the Tusket River is very popular. The upper reaches, served by Trout Point lodge, were named one of the top 10 fishing spots in the world by ''The Guardian'' in 2006. There is a commercial "river herring" fishery in the river ( alewife and blueback herring), which employs dip nets and fixed gill nets.Heather D. Bowlby and A. Jamie F. Gibson,
River Herring Assessment for the Tusket River, Nova Scotia
, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, November 2016

Communities

Communities located along the Tusket River, from northeast to southwest, include: * East Kemptville * North Kemptville * Kemptville * East Quinan * Quinan * Canaan *

South Canaan South Canaan is a second-class township in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The township's population was 1,768 at the time of the 2010 United States Census. South Canaan is home to Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary and ...

* Springhaven * Gavelton * Tusket Falls * Tusket * Pleasant Lake *

Hubbard's Point Argyle, officially named the Municipality of the District of Argyle, is a district municipality in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. Statistics Canada classifies the district municipality as a municipal district. The district municipality occupies ...

* Amirault's Hill *

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

* Sluice Point *

Upper Wedgeport Wedgeport is a unincorporated place in the Municipality of the District of Argyle in Southern Nova Scotia, Canada. History Wedgeport was settled in 1767 by returning Acadians who had been deported to the Boston area. The village of Wedgeport w ...

Wedgeport Wedgeport is a unincorporated place in the Municipality of the District of Argyle in Southern Nova Scotia, Canada. History Wedgeport was settled in 1767 by returning Acadians who had been deported to the Boston area. The village of Wedgeport w ...

Lower Wedgeport Wedgeport is a unincorporated place in the Municipality of the District of Argyle in Southern Nova Scotia, Canada. History Wedgeport was settled in 1767 by returning Acadians who had been deported to the Boston area. The village of Wedgeport w ...

References

External links

Public Lands Coalition - Tusket River
{{authority control Rivers of Nova Scotia Landforms of Yarmouth County